LogLondon Fog-Jason-1

Game log for the 2017/06/18 session of London Fog, as taken by Jason

Malachai has been helping Sir Reginald Bromley of the Queen's Guards recover his missing spellbook. It seems that it wasn't really Reginald's spellbook, and other people are looking for it. He knows, from a vision, that some of those people know Malachai is looking for it. He's had a vision of those searchers killing his landlady.

Oscar doesn't know it, but the vampires don't like this soul-collecting thing he's been doing for Huzg. Oscar recently collected the soul of a vampire named Terry, and there will be consequences.

Judith knows that intrigue boils within the Courts of the Fae. Someone in the Winter Court is working with the Storm Court-In-Exile. Lady Artarwen seeks to end her thousand years of exile and return to Arcadia. Galinore remains ignorant of their negotiations.

Cleo has also heard of dealings between the Storm Court-In-Exile and the Winter Court. She knows there's a spy in the Storm Court who reports to Lady Eos, the Dawn Queen.

Galinar knows that a group of crusading (!) Quakers have come back from the colonies to rid London of its demons. They aren't real interested in the difference between faeries and demons.

Galinar is on his way home, in the cold and quiet hour just before dawn. A fresh layer of snow covers the ground, unsullied by London's coal soot. He hears the sound of a hobnailed boot on fresh snow, and Cleo, who happens to be nearby, sees a man in a Puritan's buckle hat step out of an alley with a crossbow and take aim at Gal. The Puritan says, "To hell with you, Demon!"

Cleo draws her snubnose and prepares to trade bullets for quarrels, but Gal vanishes, and rematerializes across the alley. He steps to one of the Quakers and touches him, using Faerie magic to wither the man before him, but his foe grabs him and clings on hard enough for two more Quakers with silver daggers to jump him. The crossbowman tries to recock his weapon, but Cleo tries to shoot him first. The round squibs, and she's not going to be able to clear that in an alley. The crossbowman laughs and says, "This is why we use older technology!" Gal's had just about enough of this treatment and decides to summon the Wild Fury, letting his wind elemental scatter his attackers. Unfortunately, the elemental decides to run around and put out the streetlights instead. Not helpful. The crossbowman shoots Cleo, which is pretty painful for her, but she tackles one of the dagger-wielding men anyway. She knocks both of them off him, but never sees the fourth Quaker until he slips a rope around her neck and starts pulling. Gal calls on the elemental again, and it does, but it attacks indescriminately, zapping Cleo too.

Cleo has had just about enough of this and sinks an elbow deep into her assailant's solar plexus, ducks down out of the rope, and looks for an out. She doesn't notice that her handbag got yanked off as she slipped away from her attacker. The Quakers, distracted by the storm of Gal's elemental, can't keep her from getting away.

Malachai is leaving Lord Blackpool's manor, having just performed a seance. Blackpool is a Wizard, and Malachai wanted to casually check his library for "interesting" books. London abounds with esoteric Orders, occultism being all the rage right now, but there are also wizardly orders with real power. Blackpool belongs to the Order of the Knights Templar, which puts him firmly in that latter category. They wanted Malachai's help contacting a ghost with information. As he packs up his crystal ball, he has an unwanted and unexpected vision of someone attacking Lydia. He goes looking for Oscar.

Oscar's at home and will happily come with Malachai to the boarding house. When they arrive, Malachai sees that the door to the main parlor has been forced. Oscar becomes the Devil Inside and walks in. He finds three men in the process of cutting off one of Lydia's fingers with a knife. Once he walks in, he hears her screaming, so they must have had some sort of warning. Oscar just wades in to work. but before he gets more than a couple steps in, someone douses him with holy water. Now his blood is steaming before it hits the ground! Malachai follows Oscar in, but before he can do any harm, the man with the knife puts it to her throat and yells "Stop!" Oscar, enraged, sticks his claw through the throat of the man with the holy water bucket, and then sends his soul to Huzg. The man with the knife slits Lydia's throat, and then they start backing toward the window that looks over the garden. Oscar sprints to cut them off, and sort of throws himself into their path, breaking the window and the ward as he does. He kills one and mortally wounds the other. Malachai grabs the wounded man's head and demands to know who he's protecting. The man refuses to speak, but Malachai can see that it's Lord Throckmorton, a wizard and member of the Esoteric Order of the Silver Bough. The man's terrified of Throckmorton, and he regrets that Throckmorton once used his sister as a ritual sacrifice.

Back in the alley, Cleo has escaped, but Gal is still in a fight with a group of Quakers. He calls up some more snow and runs away. This blatant display of magic will probably only make the Quakers more determined, but for now, Gal has evaded them.

Malachai mourns Lydia. Judith has been up in his room, opening every drawer and cupboard. When the ward went up, it made a cacophanous sound in the spirit realm, and she went to investigate. She got to hear them asking where Malachai was, Lydia's insistence that she doesn't know, and then the men asking about yesterday's visitor. Lydia told them it was Lord Bromley. Malachai calls on Judith, who tells them that the guy with the holy water was a footman for Lord Throckmorton. She knows Throckmorton as a contemporary of Lord Wright. Once he came to a baccarat party at the Wright residence, and the footman brought Lady Wright a message that did not please her. Oscar resumes human form, and Judith makes herself visible to them, and tells them about the Throckmorton connection. At that point Clem Stimpson, a fellow renter, bursts in and demands to know what's happened here. Once he gets a good look at the place, he freaks out and runs. Malachai's gonna need a new place to live. Oscar saunters off, figuring that Glen has no way to recognize him. Malachai tries to pack up in a hurry, but Judith keeps moving his stuff around. At one point he accidentally stabs himself because a piece of sharp silverware got moved to an unexpected place. He packs up his stuff and gets out of there, but he forgets to bring Lord Blackpool's invitation to the seance. Because he's nervous about forgetting something like that, Malachai asks Judith to distract anyone who comes looking, and she agrees.

Sure enough, not long after Malachai leaves, an Inspector from Scotland Yard comes looking. Unfortunately, he's made of stern stuff, and refuses to be distracted. He spots the invitation right away. Malachai will be a person of interest, or a possible victim, in this investigation. Since Clem told them he saw a ghost, his testimony is going to be a little suspect.

Malachai tries to find a new place to live, and goes to a slumlord named Horace Warner. He has a reputation for not asking too many questions - but he won't rent to a filthy Rom whose old flop was a murder site. He might let Malachai stay in the boiler room. He insists on showing Malachai the room, but as soon as Horace puts a foot on the stairs, Malachai runs for it. Horace yells for one of his men to get Malachai, and Johnny slams him into a wall, but Malachai eludes him and runs far away.

Gal goes looking for Lady Arwel of the Shadow Court, hoping his old friend might heal his wounds. She proves most obliging. The healing feels like having menthol rubbed all over your body in a wind tunnel, but it works. Arwel has a fascination with mortal politics. Oddly enough, she does not ask for anything at all in exchange for healing, not even a favor.